This is literally the first thing we did on December 1! We posed with the tripod and the newly assembled Christmas decorations at church to take our Christmas photo. I had in mind to print cards to share with local friends in addition to the postcards I try to send our ministry partners via a postcard printing service.
Later, we enjoyed coffee that Sunday afternoon with dear friends.
Nathan shared the story in church of Zechariah on the Advent week devoted to the theme of "hope."
My friend "L" asked for her photo in front of the trees as she did not have a tree in her home.
Practice for the Christmas drama commenced!
We started a new Christmas tradition last year of assembling a Lego Christmas set as a family. Afterwards we disassembled it to bring back to Albania as a repeat activity.
Below -- Reni had our friend, Caleb, at the Christmas Bazaar in Tirana. I manned the table selling items for Handmade in Albania with my friend, Merita!
Ellie has been teaching music to the students at VT. For Christmas they practiced playing percussion to a recorded version of "We Three Kings." We had a dress rehearsal before we performed at...
...the Hope Center musical Christmas concert on December 11.
below -- Later, Nathan sits with "F" during the candlelight singing of Silent Night.
A portion of the highway between our village and Tirana will expand to three lanes in both directions. We had no idea the havoc that would wreak on traffic in the coming days!
Soccer school would wrap for the winter so Nathan made special cookies as parting gifts for the participants.
Sunday, December 15 we hosted some young friends for a viewing of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.
We made cookies
and played games
until a surprise visitor showed up... Grandma from Argentina! It had been nearly 3 years since they had seen her!
Last spring a visiting medical clinic provided free dental x-rays. Those revealed that one of Ellie's wisdom teeth was growing sideways. After some more detailed scans, we were able to schedule a procedure with the oral surgeon to start extracting her wisdom teeth.
Unlike back home, they use only local anesthetic, so they only pull one tooth at a time. It will be a process of several trips to extract all four teeth!
I have often referred to the special community we have created through the women's gym class. One of our most faithful participants organized a lovely Christmas party at a local restaurant.
We had a lovely meal, that included lots of traditional dancing. I was stunned to see that the party lasted nearly 4 hours! We had so much fun!
The following morning we celebrated the last day of school at VT.
Our friends Ismail and Demir sweetly climbed the roof of our home to adjust some tiles that had shifted, creating a leak in our roof.
The village kids are so taken with Christmas decorations, it's heartwarming. These sweet girls wanted their photos taken by this faux fireplace made by Luis.
No pictures of the actual work, but this dirty apron provides a clue to Nathan's work one day...
Then after church we employed armies of helpers to ice and decorate these treats which we put on refreshment plates for the Christmas program.
Some of the cookies were held back for an activity at the Hope Center. The creativity employed never ceases to amaze me. No two cookies looked the same!
The expanded college football playoff meant watching the Buckeyes in the middle of the night on the 21st -- not a great way to start Christmas week, sleep-deprived, but at least they won! What made it extra hard was that we had to wake extra early to get to the shops for Christmas grocery shopping before weekend traffic made driving and parking a nightmare.
We weren't alone in our middle-of-the-night game watching crazy-ness...
December 22
Sunday evening Christmas program started with the performance by the group from Valued Treasures...
Pastor Genti gave a strong message
Holding the service in the kalceto meant that we could serve refreshments in the sanctuary
Afterward, we celebrated with dinner as a staff at a nearby restaurant. It was warm and we shared many laughs. It was a sweet time.
Also, note Ellie's Christmas sweater. She had been begging for one for years. On a whim, we picked this up for her on sale.
December 23
The following day we were invited to the Hope Center for lunch. I pose below next to the director, Ledina.
It was also my birthday, but we decided that following lunch and the afternoon program at the center we would switch up our plans to visit the Christmas village in the center of Tirana (my birthday tradition but it was pouring rain) and instead, we visited the new entertainment business at the shopping center on our side of the city. I decided that since I'm not getting any younger, I would try something new and do karaoke! It was a lot of fun!
Followed by bowling!
December 24
Our original plans of spending the evening with Reni's birth family had to be post-poned due to illness, so the birthday crew plus Anneco joined us for snacky food and games.
December 25
Christmas morning was lowkey because we didn't exchange gifts this year (to take a family trip the kids had long been wanting), but we still read Luke 2 by the tree over Quiche Lorraine (Nathan and I) and Cinnmon Toast Crunch (the kids).
A few hours later Teresa, Luli and Hannah joined us for raclette. Note, Ellie's Christmas sweater. Yes. Four days in a row, lol.
We were introduced to this dining concept by missionary colleagues in Hungary. It's a fun sort of experience that has easy prep and a forced slowness to eating. We grill various meats and veggies on the upper grill, then take those goodies and melt cheese over them on the lower rack, which is then slid onto a piece of toasted bread.
During the days after Christmas, we enjoyed some special family time outside of Albania site seeing, learning, and eating foods we can't find there, making memories as a family realizing we only have a few more years left together as a family of four before college! As tourism to Albania has exploded, discount airlines have begun providing service that makes air travel more affordable than driving, in many cases. It felt like a big splurge (I mentioned that we skipped gifts this year to make this possible), but it was good to get some time away and for the kids to see a new-to-them place. I must admit that flying on discount airlines is not without its stress -- our flights changed multiple times between the time we bought them last summer so by the time we actually flew, a part of me was just grateful that the trip actually happened! And also that no one was sick!
We arrived home on New Years Eve and were pleased to host some co-workers from a nearby country. Their son is close friends with Reni, and we all enjoyed games and watching fireworks from the rooftop of Jeta!
I'll close with our last family photo of 2024. This was taken while we waited to board the flight back to Albania. The Lord blessed us with a good 2024 and we can only imagine what this next year will hold! See you in 2025!
